[Eye Candy]: Raffles Medical Group’s growth story continues…

There’s only one word to describe Raffles Medical Group (RMG)’s share price in 2017 which is DOWN.

Which is what interests me. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The continued decline of the share price prompted me to look deeper into RMG. RMG was once the star of the healthcare scene in Singapore and my analysis today will highlight that it will continue to be in the years to come.

RMG have a long listing history since 1997, it has since grown from strength to strength from a network of clinics in Singapore to owning a hospital, network of clinics overseas and even a mall in Holland V. It owns many clinics in Singapore and abroad, 1 hospital in Singapore and 1 mall in Holland V. In recent years, growth have been slowly tapered down compared to its high growth days in the past. RMG’s growth throughout the years hinged on opening of new clinics, hospital either in Singapore or abroad.

1) Fundamentals

— Balance Sheet —

RMG always have kept a very strong balance sheet over the past few years.

Assets easily covers all the liabilities they have and cash in RMG is around $100 million which easily covers its debt obligations.

— Cash Flow —

RMG’s cash flow have also been very healthy throughout the years.

It has managed to record positive cash flow from ops for the past 5 years. In certain years, cash flow from investing is high as they spent quite a bit on building new hospitals in China and the Holland V mall which I will go into more details later. But overall this seems to be a rather good set of cash flow with their current operations bringing in a healthy amount of cash every year.

— Income Statement —

RMG’s income statement have also been rather impressive. I have taken figures from their Annual Report from 2008 to 2016.

Revenue and EPS steadily increasing from 2008 to 2012

From 2012 to 2016, revenue continues to increase while you can see there is growth rate for EPS have been slowing down and in 2016 fell marginally below 2015. These shows that RMG’s growth have been slowing down and the group requires further growth catalysts in place to continue growing the top line.

2) Prospects

Management in RMG understood the slowing growth rate and did put in place plans for expansion as early as 2014. Below are some prospects which I feel will drive growth for the group in the future.

— Two new hospitals in China —

RMG have announced that it is venturing into China by setting up 2 hospitals, 1 in Shanghai and the other in ChongQing. These 2 hospitals are modeled closely to the one in Singapore which was open in 2001. Raffles Hospital in Singapore have been a strong growth driver for RMG since its inception.

Hospital Services segment of RMG growth rate:

2003: 10%

2004: 23.5%

2005: 50%

2006: 22.4%

…

2014: 8.4%

2015: 7.0%

2016: 6.3%

So we can see that RMG have been rather strong in managing the hospital in Singapore which saw it to grow continuously for 15 years despite the slower rate of growth recently. Thus, these 2 hospitals will be the one to watch which should play a significant role in propelling RMG’s next phase of growth.

— Raffles Hospital Extension to open in Q4 2017 —

Locally, plans to expand the current Raffles Hospital was drafted as early in 2014. The completion of it should see an increase in capacity that Raffles Hospital can take in. This should also play a role in driving growth as Raffles Hospital’s growth rate have tapered down since its inception.

— Raffles Holland V —

RMG’s first ever investment property open just last year in 2016. It houses a Raffles Medical clinic on top level and the other places are rented out to different companies. The investment property have already broke even within 7 months and looks set to provide a steady stream of rental income in the future.

With ageing population an emerging trend throughout the world, the need for healthcare is definitely a necessity. Capacity expansion for RMG will definitely drive RMG’s next phase of growth.

3) Risks

— Higher cost —

When RMG started the Raffles Hospital project in 2001, it recorded a loss for that year because of higher staffing cost and operating expenses incurred in getting the hospital up to shape. This time round with 2 hospitals and 1 extension to be fulfilled in 2019, 2018 and 2017 respectively, a surge in operating costs is a given. However, its worthy to note that RMG’s cashflow from ops have been rather healthy from its current operations. $70 to $90 million of cash flow is generated from its existing operations which should help it to pay off some of these costs.

— Execution risk —

Having 2 new hospitals in China at around the same time will be a challenge for the management in attracting talents and ensure quality service at the same time. However the management have also had many years of experience under their belt in running healthcare services in Singapore which should be valuable.

In conclusion,

RMG’s growth story hinges on the upcoming hospitals to be opened. However, RMG’s financial performance could stagnate or even drop during this period when the hospitals are getting prepared due to higher costs needed to start the hospital. With RMG’s strong ability shown by their execution of the Raffles Hospital in Singapore, the other 2 hospital projects should similarly fuel RMG’s next phase of growth.

The drop in RMG’s share price this year could have priced in the coming tougher years ahead in managing costs of these new projects and could provide a good opportunity to enter for long term investors. Executive Chairman and Co-Founder Dr Loo owns 51% of RMG which have his interests aligned with shareholders. Aberdeen Asset Management Fund also bought shares of RMG at $1.21. Hence, there should be some value if the share price are below those levels. Regardless, like I always say please DYODD! 🙂

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